Empanada Man - Lake Forest

20761 Lake Forest Dr.
Lake Forest, CA. 92630-7739
(Between Forest Ridge and Dimension Dr.)
NEXT to Jiffy Lube

Tel: (949) 855-9257
www.empanadaman.com

My buddy and I were in the mood to eat some empanadas the other day. I hadn't been down to Empanada Man in years, but I remembered it being good. We decided to head down there during lunch. I remember having to wait a long time for my empanadas the last time I was at Empanada man, because they made everything fresh to order. I decided I would call my order in so that they would be ready by the time we got there. When I was on the phone with them though, they told me that the empanadas only took 4 minutes. Therefore, I decided we would just order when we got there.

Empanada man is a little hard to find. It's in a strip mall and is a little difficult to see from the street. By the time we spotted it, we had already passed it. We had to make a U-turn to get back to it. The interior of Empanada man looks like your typical neighborhood pizza joint. They serve pizza, pasta, sandwiches and of course, empanadas. The sandwiches and empanadas are Argentinean style. They also have a few Argentinean desserts on the menu.

They have about a dozen different flavors of empanadas to choose from. I asked if we would be able to omit some of the ingredients in our empanadas. I was then told that their empanadas are now all pre-made and frozen. Therefore, special orders are no longer an options. What you see on the menu, is what you get.

My friend and I decided to split a dozen empanadas ($17.99). We got six Chorizo that came with eggs, potato and jalapenos and six Beef that came stuffed with onions, hard boiled eggs and spices. We sat down and waited. It took longer than 4 minutes. It was probably closer to 10. It wasn't a really big deal though. When they used to make them fresh, I think it took 20-30 minutes.

We were presented with a large pizza tin filled with empanadas. They served the empanadas with two sauces. One seemed to be a mayo based sauce with spices in it. The other sauce was garlicky and resembled a pesto sauce with oil and herbs. Both of the sauces were good. They were even better when you mixed them together.

We both eagerly dove into the empanadas. The dough was soft and crispy on the outside and the fillings were nice and hot. We both agreed that we preferred the beef ones over the chorizo ones. The chorizo were ok, but the beef ones just had a lot more flavor. I thought the empanadas were a little pricey, but I will return again.